Wildlife mid 2009

[Ragged Robin]

Roma, glad you liked to the Tortoiseshell photo - I was trying to enlarge your photos to look at the caterpillars and there is a wee problem with them not loading but think it is the internet connection to the site so will try again tomorrow as I would like to have a closer look!

Managed to enlarge them just now and you've captured a great action shot of a Tortoiseshell with the thistles, Roma...
caterpillars clinging on in the wind it seems!

[Anthony Darby]

I collected a dozen or so Small Tortoiseshell caterpillars to rear and release. This protects them from the braconid wasps that lay a single egg in the pupa which then undergoes mitosis (cell division) resulting in a large number of cloned wasps emerging from a single pupa.

[mark smyth]

I always thought the parasitic wasps laid multiple eggs or does it vary?

[Rodger Whitlock]

I collected a dozen or so Small Tortoiseshell caterpillars to rear and release. This protects them from the braconid wasps that lay a single egg in the pupa which then undergoes mitosis (cell division) resulting in a large number of cloned wasps emerging from a single pupa.

My reaction can be expressed in exactly one word: Wow!

I have never before heard that wasps could do this; sounds like some kind of hymenopterous octomom!

Incidentally, for those interested in the private life of wasps, a couple of book recommendations, both popularizations but well worth reading:

"Wasp Farm" by Howard Ensign Evans
"The Hunting Wasp" by John Crompton

Bookfinder.com coughs up lots of copies of both.

Evans' book is a more informal book than Crompton's but both are worthy; good reading for long, dark, winter evenings when summer and warmth and real life are dim memories.

[Gunilla]

I found a dead hornet on my garden path today.  The size of it is impressive, 30mm.

[mark smyth]

Why does this species of 'beetle', Anthocoris nemorum, the Common Flower bug keep biting me. It causes a huge hot  bump a couple of days after biting and it hurts!! The actual puncture has a raised pimple
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2101/2253646692_031f7df047.jpg?v=0

[Maggi Young]

Wasn't sure which critter you meant... is this it? From http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Anthocoris_nemorum         pic below

[Anthony Darby]

Not a beetle but a bug: order Hemiptera, sub-order Heteroptera, family Cimicidae, which includes bedbugs! It is a predator of aphids and red spider mites, and presumable anything it can get its beak into! "Will pierce human skin and suck blood if handled".

[mark smyth]

Handle! Since my very first encounter while in the Czech Republic I have been very wary of them. While repotting my bulbs one got me on the back of my hand and the other at the side of my upper arm.

WARNING if you see this insect on you flick it or swat it!

[Anthony Darby]

It is a useful predator that kills a lot of pests.

[mark smyth]

Not when it bites me.

And changing the subject what has laid the large clusters of round white eggs in my pots? I havent seen them there before this year.

[Maggi Young]

what has laid the large clusters of round white eggs in my pots?

Sounds like snails.....

[Anthony Darby]

..............or slugs.

[Armin]

Mark,
please stop lamenting about this little bug bite  Yesterday evening I forgot to bring my insect spray and black flies attacked me while I was trying to fish for walleyes until midnight - result no fish but 17 stings I counted on my calves and arms. Today it is itching like hell

After some medical treatment of my stings, today morning while doing some PC work in the 1st floor at opened window I noticed a sudden hue and cry in my garden. After a first view down the garden I went to ground floor to get a closer sight and to take a cary view through the window.
Troops of mainly young Sparrows (Passer domesticus) and some Starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) overrun my garden and sand beds looking for food, picking here and there, chasing and playing, taking a sand /sun bath or shower in my old pan...Overall a placid moment.

[Armin]

more...

Finally a little puzzle for you: How many birds to find in the last picture?